It used to be I would be glad to see the sign “NO MSG” when looking at the menu of my favourite East Asian stir-fry restaurant.

Why?

Well, as everybody knows, MSG is bad for you. MSG stands for monosodium glutamate, which causes all kinds of health problems. I heard my hairdresser’s sister got asthma from MSG, and my cousin’s girlfriend gets headaches whenever she eats in Chinese restaurants so, clearly, MSG is bad for you.

Actually, this is fallacious reasoning.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz looks at the evidence behind these claims in a recent McGill Office for Science & Society YouTube video: